Fraport cannot sell stake in St. Petersburg airport before 2025 - CEO

[April 04, 2022]  BERLIN (Reuters) -German airport services provider Fraport cannot sell its stake in St. Petersburg airport before 2025, and even then such a sale would be subject to conditions and not necessarily help Ukraine, Fraport's chief executive said on Monday.

Stefan Schulte, Chairman of the Executive Board of Fraport AG speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the new terminal 3 of Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

"Our concession is linked to a sales ban until 2025," Stefan Schulte said in a news conference, adding that selling the stake would not help stop the war as it would mean giving the Russian state an asset worth a low three-digit million euro sum.

At the same time, the German group cannot influence what flights depart from the city, Schulte said in response to questions over concerns that military planes might take off from the civilian airport.

"We only hold a 25% stake in the airport operator, so we are not involved in airport operations ourselves. But we also have no way of influencing take-off and landing rights," Schulte said.

"This is an issue for the respective air traffic control, who is allowed to start, who is allowed to land," he added.

Fraport also no longer does business in St. Petersburg in Russia and has no on-site staff there after it declared in early March it would suspend all activities in Russia.

(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

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